South St. Paul: A Brief History

Incorporated in 1887, South St. Paul grew rapidly as the blue-collar counterpart to the bright lights and sophistication of its cosmopolitan neighbors Minneapolis and St. Paul. Its prosperous stockyards and slaughterhouses ranked the city among America’s largest meatpacking centers. The proud city fell on hard economic times in the second half of the twentieth century. Broad swaths of empty buildings were razed as an enticement to promised redevelopment programs that never happened. In 1990, South St. Paul began to chart out its own successful path to renewal with a pristine riverfront park, a trail system and a business park where the stockyards once stood. Author and historian Lois A. Glewwe brings the story of the city’s revival to life in this history of a remarkable community.

Lois Glewwe was born and raised in South St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of Reuben and Ethel Hymers Glewwe. She graduated from South St. Paul High School and the University of Minnesota and received her master’s in Southeast Asian studies/Indian art from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She did post-graduate work in New Delhi, India, for a year, and returned to the States to work as the rights and reproductions director and curator of Indian art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.